Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist held hostage in the Gaza Strip, was freed on Wednesday after a deal between the ruling Hamas Islamists and the al Qaeda-inspired clan group that kidnapped him in March.

“It is the most fantastic thing to be free. It was an appalling experience,” he told BBC from the home of local Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after his 114-day ordeal at the hands of the shadowy ‘Army of Islam’.

Johnston said he had twice fallen sick and was once chained for 24 hours but only in the last half hour did they “hit me a bit” during a midnight drive towards freedom.

Often in “solitary confinement”, he had spent three months unable to see the sun.

Johnston said he sensed his captors felt new pressure after Hamas defeated Fatah three weeks ago. He described them as “a small jihadi group” more interested in harming Britain than in the Palestinian conflict with Israel.

Final deal
Mediators said the final deal was clinched by a Muslim cleric issuing a “fatwa” for Johnston’s release. They said no ransom was paid.

“I dreamt many times of being free and always woke up back in that room. Now it really is over and it is indescribably good to be out,” said Johnston, a Scot who turned 45 in captivity. Describing it “like being buried alive”, he told a news conference: “It’s almost hard to believe that I’m not going to wake up in that room.”